


Creating the Protagonist

by owlmoose



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, Writing, characterization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:35:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23257777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlmoose/pseuds/owlmoose
Summary: Some thoughts on characterizing customizable video game protagonists in fic.
Kudos: 4
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Creating the Protagonist

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to my Dreamwidth for a journaling questions meme.

I was asked to share my thoughts on characterizing customizable video game protagonists in fic. I thought about this question off and on for awhile between being asked and writing about it, because I think it's a pretty fascinating one. It's definitely an issue that comes up in Dragon Age fandom quite a bit, and Mass Effect fandom as well. How much flexibility is there for a fanfic writer when characterizing a Warden, or a Hawke, or a Shepard? Are there defined lines that we need to play within? Or is the protagonist essentially an original character, giving us total freedom to make them whoever we want?

Of course, there are some fic writers who feel free to say "Canon? Pffft, I do want I want" and take any character in any direction they like, not just customizable protagonist characters. And there's certainly nothing wrong with that approach, but that's not the kind of fic writer I am. For me, the interesting thing about fanfic is finding new and interesting things to do with characters and story within the structure that the canon provides. Even when I write a story with an AU premise, I try to keep events and characterization as close to canon as possible. Then again, can one even say that there is such a thing as "canon" for Shepard, or the Warden, or for Hawke?* As a general rule, I would say yes, but it's such a broad space of possible canons that there's a lot of room for flexibility. (More so for the Warden than for Hawke or Shepard -- the Warden has a set backstory, different for each Origin, but personality-wise, they are essentially a tabula rasa. Hawke and Shepard, on the other hand, do have in-game personalities, although the player has a hand in creating it.)

When it comes to writing the protagonist characters into my own Dragon Age fic, I'm almost always writing about a particular Warden or Hawke -- one that I created myself, usually through the course of playing a full game. If I write about Sereda Aeducan, for example, she's not a generic female dwarf noble. She's the Warden I spent over a hundred hours with, playing through DA: Origins, Awakening, Golems, and Witch Hunt. The story is her story, set within her canon and reflecting the choices she made and the outcomes she discovered, or an AU with a purposeful divergence. When I decided to write _Justify the Means_ , an AU about a very different kind of female Aeducan, I actually created a new character and played through her origin. This is why I rarely write fic about Tabris, or Amell, or male Cousland, etc.: I've never played a Warden of that background, so I don't know who they are, or how to tell their stories properly. There've been a very few exceptions, mostly when writing to prompts or plot bunnies that don't suit any of my current Wardens, but writing a specific Warden whom I already know is much more within my comfort zone.

I can have a little more flexibility with a Hawke, as long as the Hawke isn't central to the story. For example, I wrote a few stories featuring a male Hawke before I ever played through my Garrett's canon, so I had to come up with a generic Garrett Hawke to fill that role. But as with the Wardens, I'm much happier if I have a known Hawke to work with (diplomatic rogue Marian, aggressive mage Marissa, snarky warrior Garrett) and am unlikely to put a generic Hawke into a starring role.

Although there are exceptions, from what I've seen, I think most fic writers who work with the protagonist characters in these kinds of canons do something similar. They aren't writing stories about A Warden or A Hawke or A Shepard, they're writing about _their_ Warden/Hawke/Shepard. Some feel more bound to follow the canonical background and events of the games than others, but it's still where the seed of the character arises. In my case, as you might expect, I do use canon as my foundation -- I am very unlikely to create headcanons for my player characters that directly contradict the events of the game, although sometimes I'll fudge things a little for the sake of storytelling. 

So in a way, it's not really that different for me than writing other characters. The main difference is that I had a part in creating the original canon, and that is most definitely part of the fun. 

But that's me. How does it work for you?

*There's also a larger question about what "canon" even means in a universe as flexible as those created by Bioware, where outcomes and characterizations change based on player choices, and even more options open up when modding gets involved, but that's another conversation for another day.


End file.
